Announcing - Project Roll-Play

You know, I've developed a bit of an unhealthy fascination with a number of different pen and paper, roleplaying games over the years.  I think it must be my background with computer gaming and modding, but when I played many of them... especially when I GM'ed campaigns, I found myself constantly tweaking the rules attempting to streamline and simplify them.

Roll-Play is the ultimate result, my personal attempt to make a D20 RPG gaming system that can handle... quite simply anything... Here's a little preview.

Augment (Humanoid)

The result of genetic experiments, bioengineering, or other less ethical practices, Augments are often times shunned or even hunted down as game.  Due to their nature as creations of science and technology they vary widely in abilities, nature, and appearance.

                Anatomy:  Augments usually feature a mix of human and other species traits such as feline, reptilian, or canine features.  Other augments feature a mix of many sources this mix results in a variety of different traits that can be beneficial or less than helpful.

                Biochemistry:  Organic, Carbon-based.  As carbon-based organics augments consume carbon-based foods primarily.  Their bioengineered metabolism may allow them to break down almost any material to use as fuel for their bodies including heavy metals and even rock itself.  It may also dramatically increase their caloric intake.

                Diet:  Augments usually have a diet similar to their basic creature.

                Habitat:  Augments can live almost anywhere, though they tend to prefer the same sort of environment of their base creature.

                Psychology:  Augments live on the run or in the service of a master or corporate entity.  Paranoia runs deep among those that have escaped to freedom and trust does not come easily, if at all.

                Sociology:  Augments rarely congregate in any fashion, but when they do, the societies that are formed tend toward the extremes and isolationism.

Playing as an Augment:

Augments are versatile, and extremely adaptable.  As an augment you’re a specialist who has been bred, engineered, or otherwise ‘tailored’ to be best at a specific set of abilities.

                In most settings augments are often times despised by those that lack the augmentations they’ve been given.  Whether they’re in more powerful positions due to their augmentation depends entirely on setting.  You’re either a leader or a pauper depending on the world in which you’re playing.

Fighting Augments:

The best way to fight an augment is to figure out their specialty and remove it from play.  If they’re clearly a master of melee combat, fight from range.  For every ability they have maxed there will be one drained and once you identify it, you can exploit it.

Augment (Humanoid) Species Traits

Humanoid Augments share the following species traits:

                Ability Modifiers:  +4 to two ability score modifiers of your choice, and a -4 ability modifier to an ability score of your choice, these three modifiers can stack atop each other.

Medium Size:  As medium creatures, Augments have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Senses:  Augments are designed with improved senses for use in combat.  These senses come in various forms.  Please select one from this list on character creation:

·         Animal Senses:  Augments with this form of sensor perception gain low-light vision and the scent special ability.  Augments with low-light vision ignore concealment from darkness but not total concealment.

·         Blind Sense: Augments with this form of sensory perception ignore all concealment on targets within 6-squares.

·         Night-vision: Augments with this form of sensory perception ignore all concealment from darkness, including total concealment.  Unfortunately you treat normal light as bright light, and bright light as blinding light in exchange. Essentially this acts as Darkvision plus the Light Sensitivity flaw.

Natural Weapons:  Augments may choose from these possible selections of natural weapons.

·         Claws and Teeth:  2 primary claw attacks which deals 1d4 damage + strength modifier and 1 primary bite attack which deals 1d6 damage + twice strength modifier.

·         Claws and Talons:  2 primary claw attacks which deals 1d4 damage + strength modifier and 2 secondary talon attacks which deals 1d4 damage + ½ strength modifier.

·         Brutal Fists:  2 primary slam attacks which deal 1d8 damage + strength modifier.

                Speed:  Augment base speed is dependent on their design, select one of the two following traits for their base speeds.

·         Aquatic:  Base speed is 6-squares, and they gain a swim speed of 6-squares.

·         Arboreal:  Base speed is 6-squares, and they gain a climb speed of 6-squares.

·         Swift:  Base speed is 8-squares.

                Crib Languages:  None

Human

The baseline from which all other species and races tend to be compared.  Humans or Homo Sapiens are considered the norm, the average.  Neither particularly strong or fast, wise or smart, humans are unapologetically average.  Not that it's particularly a bad thing.

                Anatomy:  Humans are mammalian creatures with an average height of 1.8 meters tall and an average weight of between 60-80 kilograms, however significant deviance from this norm is possible due to obesity, diet, hormonal imbalance, and genetics.  Human skin tone varies widely from a pale ashen color to a dark black.  Hair and eye color vary widely from red and blonde to brown and black.  Eyes are generally a shade of grey, green, blue, or brown.  Eye dimorphism is rare but possible.  Genetics indicate that other hair and eye colors (such as blue hair, red eyes, gold eyes, and so forth) are possible but extremely unlikely.  Like many mammals Humans are sexually dimorphic with clear visible differences between male and female members, however this dimorphism is not so severe as to affect their statistics.

                Biochemistry:  Organic, Carbon-based.  As carbon-based organics humans consume carbon-based foods primarily and many heavy metals are considered toxic to them.

                Diet:  Humans are omnivores that tend toward cooked meats.  Fruits and vegetables can be consumed both cooked and uncooked.  Humans that eat nuts, fish, and fruits have a tendency toward slightly longer life spans then those that consume primarily red meats.

                Habitat:  Humans without clothing or other technology are most comfortable in a tropical or sub-tropical habitat, but simple heavy clothing can allow them to endure typical arctic conditions.  It's common for human settlements to be established on or near coastlines, but it's not uncommon for large settlements to be established almost anywhere.

                Psychology:  You name it, humans have done it when it comes to psychology.  It's better to consider human psychology a baseline with which to compare other species.

                Sociology:  Human culture and organization spans just about every conceivable means for mammalian creatures.  From nomadic bands to fascist nation states and agrarian farm villages to vast continent spanning democracies, all have existed so far in our world, so there's little reason to think that other futuristic cultures couldn't be spawned by human minds.

Playing as a Human

Playing as a human is one of the most natural fits for novice players due to their flexibility and ease of getting in character.  Humans in many ways are unapologetically average and flexible allowing for easy customization for specific game concepts.

Fighting Humans:

Since humans are not predisposed to good or ill, it’s rather easy for a group of heroes or villains to find themselves fighting humans.  Their inherent flexibility and variability make it so no singular strategy is guaranteed to work with great success against them so being cautious and flexible in your approach is likely the best choice.

Human Species Traits

Humans share the following species traits:

                Ability Modifiers:  +2 to an ability score of your choice.

                Medium Size:  As medium creatures, Humans have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

                Speed:  Human base speed is 6-squares.

                Bonus Trained Skill:  Humans are highly adaptable and often proficient in a wide variety of skills.  A Human character chooses one additional trained skill at 1st level.

                Bonus Feat:  Humans gain one bonus feat at 1^st level.

                Bonus Talent:  Humans gain one bonus talent at 1^st level.

                Crib Languages:  Various (English, German, Norse...)

Nymph

Mystical creatures of immense beauty, poise, grace, and magic, Nymphs are renown for their beauty and magical skills.  Their exact appearance changes dependent upon the world in which they are present within, though most appear to be blindingly beautiful variations of humans or elves.

                Anatomy:  Nymphs are mammalian creatures with an average height of 1.6 meters tall and an average weight of between 30-50 kilograms, this weight is surprisingly universal as Nymphs do not normally suffer from hormonal imbalance or obesity.  Nymph skin tone is usually a very pale white to bronze or a blue-white.  Hair color spans the known spectrum, though dark browns and blacks are the most common.  Eyes coloration varies wildly with red, gold, purple, and violet colors appearing.  Eye dimorphism is rare but possible.  Unlike most species, Nymphs are exclusively female, but capable of reproducing with almost any mammalian humanoid.  Usually the female results of such unions are full Nymphs while the males assume the traits of their father’s species.

                Biochemistry:  Organic, Carbon-based.  As carbon-based organics Nymphs eat carbon-based foods primarily and many heavy metals are considered toxic to them.

                Diet:  Nymphs are omnivores that tend toward various natural produce instead of meat.  They prefer fruits, olives, apples, peaches, and various grains.

                Habitat:  Nymphs are at home in deep forests, oasis, and even small rural settlements.  Due to their beauty and the attention they often attract, most Nymphs are somewhat solitary and reclusive.

                Psychology:  Nymphs tend toward being quite and introverted.  As a result, Nymphs tend to blend into the background in most confrontations or avoid conflict entirely.  However few can argue with the persuasive powers of an experienced Nymph diplomat.

                Sociology:  Nymph society tends to be highly isolated from other societies in an attempt to escape the attention of the other races.  They also tend to be small, usually revolving around a group of sisters or a mother and her female children.  Occasionally daring Nymphs may integrate themselves in other societies but this is rare.

Playing as a Nymph

Nymphs have a unique appeal and a rather understated roll in most parties.  Their diplomatic prowess makes them excellent negotiators and their bonus to charisma can make them devastating spell casters.  Playing as a Nymph can be very rewarding but also quite challenging as their utility in combat leaves something to be desired often times.

Fighting Nymphs:

It is a rare occurrence for a party to find themselves in combat with a Nymph, in large part due to their conflict avoidance and passive nature.  However when a Nymph is fully riled into defending their homes or children they can make a dangerous, or even devastating opponent.  Players should be wary of attempts to seduce, confuse, or enchant their comrades to fighting in the Nymph’s defense, as her charismatic talents are her greatest weapons.

Nymph Species Traits

Nymphs share the following species traits:

                Ability Modifiers:  -2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, and +4 Charisma:  Nymphs are charismatic and manipulative but weak and frail.

                Medium Size:  As medium creatures, Nymphs have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

                Speed:  Nymph base speed is 6-squares.

                Always Female:  There are no males of this species, all members are exclusively female.

                Ageless:  Nymphs are immune to the penalties of advanced age.  They do not take the penalty to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution from old age.

                Enhanced Ability (Charisma):  A Nymph grows more beautiful and manipulative as they age.  A Nymph gains the Enhanced Ability (Charisma) Power as a bonus Talent even if they lack the prerequisites.

                Crib Languages:  Auran.

Roll-Play is designed from the ground up as a classless system, revolving around the selection of Talents and Feats at each level to progress a character. This allows characters to specialize or generalize without the worry of multiclassing and other complications.

The Talents are designed to allow for a vast array of play styles and various settings, ranging from Anime and Comic Book superheroes to the dark and gritty reality of trench warfare. Roll-Play is meant to be able to handle them all as one single book.

As you might imagine, this is an absolute mountain of work for any one person to get through... but I'll get their eventually... And here's the Character Sheet I've got at present.